Happy Tuesday to you all.
Let’s begin with the ongoing saga of Samir Nasri. Yesterday the player seemed to confirm a 4 year move to Arsenal on his official website, prompting news sites and various copycats to go into overdrive. Nasri’s official site then went down and later talk of the deal being done was played down by the player’s agent, the horrible Jean-Pierre Bernes who said:
Discussions are continuing between the two clubs and the player. Nothing has been finalized, no element of the transfer has been finalized and everybody is still talking. It is premature to announce anything at all.
Now, from the information I’ve been given this is basically a big load of old bollocks. The deal is done but for whatever reason Marseille don’t want it to be officially announced yet. The delay, such as it is, is not coming from Arsenal’s side. Whatever Marseille’ca reasons are remain open to speculation so while it’s frustrating for fans not to have that official confirmation there’s no need to worry. It’ll happen.
Cesc talks about how he’s a man now. Which is true. He was a boy. And now he’s a man. That comes with age, you see. I too was once a boy and then I became a man. Which is far preferable to becoming a cyclops or a nervous zebra, which was a very real fear for a while. I mean zebras have a nervous existence as it is. Imagine being an especially nervous one. That’s no life for a boy.
He (Cesc, not the nervous zebra) also talks about Russia ahead of the Euro 2008 semi-final, saying that Andrei Arshavin is the man to watch.
The Sun links us with a move for Valencia’s David Silva. An ‘Arsenal source’ said:
Arsene wasn’t just in Vienna to cheer on Cesc — he was there to take a good look at Silva. He is a player who would fit well in the Arsenal set-up, especially if Hleb goes.
He’s certainly a very good player, I like him a lot, but I suppose the difficulty we might have is that nobody really seems too keen on Hleb. The Barcelona link has gone very quiet, what with them having to sell their vital organs to buy anyone, there’s been nothing from Bayern and only Wolfsburg have said anything remotely positive about signing the player. So for all his desire to leave Hleb might find himself with nowhere to go.
There’s nothing new in the Spanish press about Adebayor. Just the same old crap from the last few days slightly re-written. A deal is ‘really close’ and Adebayor ‘sees himself at Barca’ blah blah blah shove it up your cunts blah blah. Speaking of Adebayor he came third in the player of the season poll on Arsenal.com – that means top spot has to go to either Cesc or the departed Flamini. I think it’ll be Cesc.
Squad numbers for the forthcoming season have been announced. Manuel Almunia is, as expected, the new number 1, Carlos Vela gets 12, Aaron Ramsey takes 16, Vito Mannone 24 and other than that there’s nothing much changing. There are still some lovely numbers waiting to be filled though.
Austrian based Gooner Kevin provides the following info regarding Arsenal fixtures on their pre-season Austrian training camp:
22/7/2008 – Arsenal vs. Szombathely in Szombathely – Hungary (just across the Austro-Hungarian border)
28/7/2008 – Arsenal vs. Burgenland Select Team in Ritzing
Now there’s an exclusive for you. Cheers, Kevin.
That’s really about it, so it is. My continued summer of ‘que sera, sera’ is going very well, I have to say. No stress here, no RSI from frantically clicking around NewsNow just in case this might be the one time that Sportingo or Caught Offside don’t print something that isn’t a load of scuttery shite, no grey hairs. Well, that’s a lie. Lots of grey hairs but those come from having a teenage daughter, not from Arsenal.
Till tomorrow.
